Before crafting IBHU gin, what was

Paula and I were both academics at universities in the UK for It’s over 15 years. Paula was a Professor in Immunology and I was Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology. Then in 2014, Paula left academia to become a professional photographer and shortly after I also left the university and moved into online identity and authentication. This meant that we could work from anywhere and so we decided in 2017 to move back to South Africa. (I am South African but Paula is British.)

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How did you come up with the idea of making IBHU gin?

Shortly after we arrived back in South Africa Paula had an opportunity to go to Kenya on safari where she enjoyed the quintessential experiences of sipping a G&T at sundown around a water hole and watching elephants come down to drink. When she got back from that trip we took our kids on their first ever safari to Botlierskop Game Reserve and on one of the walking safaris our game ranger was explaining how particular elephants are in their browsing habits and yet how little of the plant material they actually digest. Their role in the wild is bush clearance and so these 4.5-ton animals only digest ~30% of what they consume. This is why they have to eat up to 18 hours a day.

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What's the inspiration and meaning behind the IBHU name?

Ibhungane is a dung beetle and Ibhu means story or note. So IBHU is the story of the dung beetle. Indlovu is the word for ‘elephant’ in several Adican languages.

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Do you remember the moment when you knew you had cracked the gin recipe?

We were very fortunate to have Roger Jorgensen, the grandfather of craft gin in South Africa, help us develop the recipe. He guided us through the entire process from the initial idea to our very first bottling run. We enjoyed many memorable afternoons in Roger’s garden tasting the different recipes, narrowing them down until we knew we had found the perfect blend of juniper and botanicals.

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What did it feel like, and how long had you been working at it to get to that point?

The journey of developing the gin had been such a crazy adventure and so much still had to be done in order to actually get it into the bottle that I don't think we really stopped to consider the milestone - other than enjoying another glass on Roger’s verandah. I guess we had been working on the gin for almost four months before we developed the final recipe.

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What is the advantage of using plant materials that remain undigested by an elephant?

Elephants have an amazingly varied diet and they are able to reach the tastiest fruit and vegetation that other animals are unable to. They essentially have the pick of the best on offer in the bushveld.

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Given you use so many natural plants (Undigested Materials) and resources, do seasonal environment changes affect your recipe and gin flavour? How do you mitigate against that?

One of the unique aspects of our gin is that, depending on the season and geographical location of dung collection, the flavour will differ slightly. In essence, creating different vintages of the gin.

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Can you tell us more about the distillery and distillation process?

We produce a traditional London Dry as our base gin and then we infuse the elephant botanicals.

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How did you come up with flavours of your gin: Marula & Orange, Pear & Vanilla?

When we started thinking of other gin expressions we went back to the elephants. Orange, marula and prickly pear are some of their favourite foods. So once again the elephants inspired the gin.

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What's your favourite way to drink your gin?

I enjoy my whiskey so I like to drink the gin neat on the rocks. However, more traditional gin drinkers would really enjoy the gin with a splash of fresh orange topped up with tonic water and ice. If you enjoy an after-dinner digestif you can add a shot of Indlovu gin to your espresso to make a Caffè Corretto.

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What have been the biggest challenges and achievements so far?

Early on in the process the most difficult thing was ignoring the negative comments and believing in what we were creating. Sometimes you felt overwhelmed by the nay-sayers, but fortunately, we’ve always had some staunch supporters of our idea who helped us through those periods. I think our greatest achievement came when we won double-gold at the South African Craft Gin Awards. It was the external validation of our achievements.

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Can you tell us more about the conservation work you do?

We donate 15% of profits to Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development (HERD) centre at Jabulani. HERD set up the first baby elephant orphanage in South Africa.

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What's next for you and IBHU - any exciting plans?

Watch this space.